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Many people on this forum are luke warm to negative about UMASS joining the MAC, but I think it's a really good addition. It's a highly respected and nationallly ranked university, and it's within the orbit of the Boston TV market. I don't see any negatives in this move. Are there other universities that would be a good fit? Sure, but there has to be interest from those universities for it to become a reality. So far, I have not heard that WKU and others are calling the MAC to join.

This isn't very hard. - Big media market - Respected academics - Top of the MAC basketball program with tradition - Living, breathing football program Overall, UMass makes the MAC more competitive with a large market that can be sold to whichever media company gives the MAC their next TV deal. That's the bottom line. It's beating a dead horse, but the "traditional MAC schools" (mainly directional Michigan's, Balls, NIU, etc.) don't move the needle for people outside of the MAC offices. Those are the pearls the MAC has been clutching and it's nice to see them loosen the grip to accept a more competitive but non-traditional school to the MAC.

Size of the TV market matters. Massachussettes has 7 million+; Kentucky has 4.5 million. Ratings determine a lot, so the Boston and Massachussettes market is not bad addition. I'm just not sure why there is such negative about UMASS. Again, has any other univeristy petitioned to join recently that you'd prefer? The MAC is "worse" today becuase it has little or no national TV audience (it never had this). It's one of the last regional conferences, and that's what it will remain for better or worse.

Well, we are in the area for a wedding, so we decided to check out the UMASS campus. It is a really beautiful campus, so should make for some nice road trips to see the Zips! It kind of gives me Miami U vibes from the architecture and Ohio U vibes from the area’s geography. The surrounding area feels a lot like Hocking Hills, so based off of that I’d say it feels like a MAC school. Haven’t interacted with too many people yet, so I can’t speak to the cultural fit.

https://www.si.com/nba/raptors/toronto-raptors-have-interviewed-Enrique-Freeman-ahead-of-nba-draft

Yahoo Sports ranks Freeman as the 39th best prospect in the draft. Wow. Bronny isn't even on the list, so you know it's serious.